Enhance, Revise & Extend! – How to make our dear old games even better? (SAT 12:00)
Besides the 2000s boom of indie game development on C64 the scene has also started to dig through their old favourites with a thought: ‘How could this be better?’. Grue (/ Beyond Force, Extend & Kasettilamerit) has been one of the main activists on several enhancing projects. How is it all done… and in the end – why? Grue is interviewed by the C64 Finnish game journalist Grendel / Byterapers.
Examples on C64 game enhancing:
- Impossible Mission Revised: https://csdb.dk/release/?id=242553
- Night Mission Pinball Extended: https://csdb.dk/release/?id=240659
- Rock n’ Bolt Enhanced: https://csdb.dk/release/?id=239195
- Evening Star Enhanced: https://csdb.dk/release/?id=237954
Thou Shall Code (SAT 13:00)
How has C64 coding changed since the early days of the scene? How have the tools improved our demos? Could it get any better? C64 coders discuss on the most essential ingridient of a demo – the code. Trap / Bonzai, Scorpion / Artline Designs and Tape / Extend join the panel hosted by Marq / Fit / L!T / Dkd.
The Joystick Reanimator clinic by Ninja / The Dreams (During the party)
Bring your damaged joystick to Zoo! Our friend, Ninja / The Dreams is kindly offering “repair service” for free in order to get your stick back to life again. He is bringing The Joystick Reanimator with him. Find him at the party and ask politely if there’s something that can be done. All for the love of preserving old hardware!!
The “Joystick Reanimator” is designed to connect joysticks with microswitches that no longer function properly due to an oxide layer on the switching contacts – an easy reanimation with very little effort. To achieve this, a very small arc is generated by a charged capacitor at the switching contacts, leading to partially or completely dissolving the oxide layer and thus, clean microswitches.
Additionally, 4mm measuring sockets allow to measure the resistance of the closed switching contacts before and after the procedure.
An ideal switch has 0 ohms when closed and an infinite resistance when open.
Since the thin wires in the joystick cable have approximately 1-2 ohms of resistance, the ideal measurable value with the switch closed is 1-2 ohms.
Practice has shown that even resistance values of 50 ohms allow the joystick on the C64 to work reliably, as the CIA inputs are high-impedance.
However, the aim is to get the resistance value of the microswitches as low as possible through the procedure with the Joystick Reanimator.